A Pulitzer-winning playwright returns with mixed results

Yet there are also enough hooks in the work to make The Balusters entertaining, even in spite of itself. It’s particularly smart in its depiction (mostly, though not exclusively, through Elliot) of a softer conservatism, one that would never flirt with direct Trumpism yet has a clear sense of social order, as well as the order of operations that, say, a gay Black man like Brooks (Carl Clemons-Hopkins) must process when evaluating possible prejudices against him. Given that, the dialogue’s riffs on genuine biases and verbal sensitivities aren’t as clever or unpredictable as it should be; more often than not, supposedly cutting jokes are easy enough to anticipate. But the cast delivers those lines with such impeccable timing that they often get laughs anyway.